CONTRAST IN US MEDIA COVERAGE OF 2 MAJOR CANADIAN ELECTIONS

U.S. media have long ignored Canada. However, when Quebec came close t o voting for secession from the rest of Canada in 1995, it was front-p age news in major U.S. newspapers and a big story in news magazines an d on network TV newscasts. Yet, the election a year earlier that had s et the stage for the secession referendum was largely ignored. Both ev ents contained the elements that gatekeeping studies say predict cover age such as proximity, relevance, implications for trade and threat to the United States, yet the coverage differed markedly.